astralstreeting finished reading Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids by Kenzaburō Ōe
Nip the Buds, Shoot the Kids (Japanese: 芽むしり仔撃ち, Hepburn: Memushiri Kouchi); also known as "Pluck the Bud and Destroy the …
I was first exposed to Japanese literature and literary fiction in my late teens through Yukio Mishima. I read him fairly uncritically at that age. I found the politics silly and I thought he was doing theatre or that his death was a fulfillment of a sexual fantasy. It did make me want to live more in my body and less in my imagination. Reading a queer writer at this age also helped me grow as a person. Though it would be hard for me to minimize the politics if I re-read his stuff now, 30 years later, especially with a better understanding of the background of his time.
Reading Japanese Literature: A Very Short Introduction has made me excited to discover many of his contemporaries and other modernist Japanese writers. There seem to be many figures who are equally fascinating and write at the same level of excellence. …
